Skopje, 28 April 2025 (MIA) – The Constitutional Court needs a legislation to upgrade it and the status quo won’t bring anything good to anyone, Constitutional Court President Darko Kostadinovski said after the opening of Monday’s roundtable “Do we need a law on the Constitutional Court”, adding he hoped the public debate will result in all issues being addressed properly.

Both experts and scholars have different opinions on the matter, Kostadinovski said stressing that he has a clear stance: “I advocate for a law on the Constitutional Court, not for any kind of law, but for either a constitutional foundation for a 2/3 law or a constitutional law on further regulating the constitutional provisions.”

“Although being the youngest, I’ve served the most as a constitutional judge compared to anyone here and I see the need. We need a law for upgrading. 34 years is too long. Not only the head of state but also anyone else has the right to ask what the role of the Constitutional Court has been in the past 34 years, how it is possible to have the lowest trust, a historic low, in the complete apparatus. It means it hasn’t done its job and we have to be self-critical. To me, it is a very important topic and one of the priorities as head of the Court,” stated Kostadinovski in a news conference after the opening of the roundtable, organized by the Constitutional Court with support from the EU Delegation in Skopje via the IPA 3 mechanism.

According to him, today’s event aims at reopening a public debate on the necessity “to reform the most unreformed institution in our country.”

“The status quo won’t bring anything good to anyone… We should be aware of the reality we live in today and whether this status quo of the Constitutional Court regarding its normative framework and authorisations has brought us anything good,” said Kostadinovski.

He acknowledged that the Constitutional Court was rightly criticized for being idle for too long calling on the Constitutional Court itself to initiate reforms. “We know best what we deal with at work.”

“The citizens have the right to know who the constitutional judges are. The process of the election of judges is moderately transparent. The candidates for constitutional judges should present themselves in Parliament in order the citizens to see who they are, they also should have the right to know how they work,” Kostadinovski said.

The roundtable “Do we need a law on the Constitutional Court” aims at opening a debate on the need of the adoption of a legislation that will regulate the work of the Constitutional Court through a dialogue of representatives of institutions, law experts and the civil sector. Opening addresses were delivered by President Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, EU Ambassador Michalis Rokas, German Ambassador Petra Drexler and U.S. Ambassador Angela Aggeler. 

Photo: MIA